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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25836367">More than one way to kiss a cat</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ravenbringslight/pseuds/ravenbringslight'>ravenbringslight</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>First Kiss, Fluff, Lokitty, Love Confessions, M/M, Pre-Thor (2011), Shapeshifting, Sibling Incest, teenage idiots</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 03:56:05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,310</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25836367</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ravenbringslight/pseuds/ravenbringslight</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Thor can't find his brother, but a little black cat has been tagging along after him for two days.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Loki/Thor (Marvel)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>458</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Best Thorkis, Thorki Eggxchange 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>More than one way to kiss a cat</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/opalyzed/gifts">opalyzed</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written as a gift for an exchange and also based heavily on <a href="https://twitter.com/hardwareupgrade/status/1248400376673386500?s=20">this adorable art</a> by hardwareupgrade. ❤️❤️❤️</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Thor was looking for his brother. He’d just worked out a logic problem that their tutor set both of them a week ago (Loki had only taken two days to figure it out and he had refused to give Thor even a hint how to go about it) and he wanted to show off a little that he managed to do it without Loki’s help. Part of him hoped that Loki would be impressed. More likely Thor would just have to endure Loki’s smugness about how long it took him, but that was fine. Maybe he could convince Loki to come swimming with him afterwards.</p><p>Loki wasn’t in his rooms, though, or in the library, or even the training grounds. </p><p>Fandral and Sif were at the training grounds, however, and Thor stayed to practice grappling holds with them. He spent an hour there, trading good-natured jibes and working up a sweat.</p><p>“By the way, have you seen Loki?” Thor said when they were done throwing each other into the dirt.</p><p>Fandral shrugged. “Not since...two days ago?”</p><p>Thor clapped him on the back anyway, and headed to the baths. As he strode away from the training grounds, a little shadow detached itself from under the spectator seats and trailed after him, low to the ground and furtive.</p><p>Thor stopped and dropped to a squat, holding his hand out and making encouraging noises. The cat, for that was what it was, cautiously crept out of the grass on the side of the path to sniff at his fingers. It was a pretty little thing, sleek and black with huge blue-green eyes. It rubbed the side of its mouth against his knuckles, marking him, then butted its head into his hand demanding to be pet.</p><p>“You’re forward, aren’t you?” Thor said. He scratched its head and neck for a moment, bemused, then rose and continued on to the baths. Maybe Loki would be there. </p><p>Loki was not there, and furthermore the bath attendants hadn’t seen him for two days.</p><p>Thor found this passing strange, as his brother had always been a stickler for daily baths (and in fact often harangued Thor when he felt like Thor hadn’t been washing often enough). After Thor bathed, taking particular care to scrub himself with a lemongrass soap that he knew Loki liked the scent of, he began asking the rest of the palace servants about his brother’s whereabouts.</p><p>The answer was similar from all of them. <i>I haven’t seen His Highness since two days gone</i> from the pages, or <i>He was around on Sunday asking for lunch to be sent to his quarters</i> from the kitchen staff, (Sunday, which was the day before yesterday), or <i>I changed the fire grate in his room this morning, but, if you don’t tell anyone I said so, Highness, his bed looked unmade</i> from the housekeepers.</p><p>Thor rarely went an entire day without seeing his brother, and he thought that the staff must be mistaken, for surely he saw Loki yesterday? But when he thought back on it, he realized that he had been busy all day yesterday—a diplomacy lesson in the morning (that he had been miffed that Loki had skipped out on and left Thor to toil at by himself), and lunch with Frigga, and footwork drills in the afternoon, and then an armor fitting, and a nap, and dinner in the great hall where Volstagg had been showing off his new engagement ring, and a round of drinks afterwards to celebrate said engagement—and Thor hadn’t seen Loki once.</p><p>Had Loki gone on some kind of trip without him? The thought left a sour taste in Thor’s mouth.</p><p>Thor headed out of the palace to the stables. He was past the need to show off to Loki and starting to edge into something between anger and worry.</p><p>He realized he’d gained a little shadow again. The cat from earlier followed him all the way to the stables on silent feet.</p><p>It even followed him inside, though it paused at the entrance, then quickly darted forward to wind between his feet, nearly tripping him. Mildly exasperated, Thor picked it up by the scruff and carried it in the crook of his arm.</p><p>“Your Highness,” the stableboy said, emerging from one of the stalls wiping his hands on a cloth. “Will you be wanting the palfrey saddled, or the destrier?”</p><p>“I won’t be riding today, Erik,” Thor said. “ I’m wondering if my brother has been by. Sunday, perhaps?”</p><p>“I saddled Prince Loki’s palfrey for him a week gone,” Erik said. “Haven’t seen hide nor hair of him since. Begging your pardon for the familiarity, Highness.”</p><p>The cat meowed loudly and wiggled in Thor’s grasp. Thor tried to let it down, but it climbed up onto his shoulder instead and yowled again. He attempted to lift the cat from his shoulder, but it dug its claws into his leathers and held on. Thor left it for the moment, ignoring the way it was butting its head into his hair.</p><p>“And all of his mounts are still here?” Thor said.</p><p>“Aye, Highness.” Erik was eying the cat and trying not to laugh at Thor’s predicament.</p><p>Perhaps Loki was not on a trip after all, unless he’d decided to walk to the Observatory on foot, which Thor had never known him to do. Thor thanked Erik and headed back towards the palace, hitchhiker still firmly attached to his shoulder. He found himself scritching at the cat’s neck as he walked.</p><p>“This is a bit ridiculous, don’t you think?” Thor said to the cat. In response, it settled itself to drape over Thor’s shoulder and started purring. Since it didn’t look like Thor was going to be able to divest himself of the cat any time soon, he stopped by the kitchens again for a plate of meat trimmings and a little jug of cream (and a sandwich for himself, which he ate in three huge bites).</p><p>He retired to his rooms to think. The cat leapt lightly down to the ground the second the door closed and began sniffing around the room. Thor set the food on the ground for it and collapsed onto the divan.</p><p>It occurred to him that Loki might be avoiding him.</p><p>The thought didn’t sit well at all.</p><p>Thor only realized he’d been staring into space when the cat jumped up into his lap and settled itself there. He stroked its back, and it rolled over and gave him its belly instead..</p><p>“Ah, so you’re a he,” Thor said. “What shall I call you, hm? Little shadow for how I can’t get rid of you?”</p><p>The cat made a noise somewhere between a sneeze and a bark that made Thor laugh involuntarily. He grabbed onto Thor’s hand with both paws and gnawed at his fingers until Thor flipped him right side up again and started petting him with long firm strokes that set him to purring and kneading at Thor’s lap.</p><p>Thor briefly entertained the notion of asking Heimdall to look for Loki, but only had to imagine the upbraiding he’d get before he discarded it. The Watcher’s sight was for far more important things than this, and besides, Loki would be furious with him if he ever found out that Thor had asked Heimdall to spy on him.</p><p>“Have <i>you</i> seen my brother?” Thor asked the cat. “I seem to have lost him. I bet you see a lot of things slinking around the palace. If only you could talk.”</p><p>The cat meowed at this, a plaintive sound like Thor had just told him something sad.</p><p>Thor imagined what Loki would say when he came back to find that a cat had adopted Thor. He’d poke fun, of course, but Loki had a soft spot for animals that he didn’t for people, and Thor thought he may be secretly pleased. Thor would make him squirm a little first, though. He’d tell Loki that since he disappeared Thor decided to replace him with a cat, and that he found the cat’s company much more tolerable.</p><p>“I guess you’ll have to keep me company until he returns,” Thor told the cat, suddenly missing his brother much more strongly than the situation called for. Two days wasn’t so long, really. Surely Loki would turn up tomorrow. Maybe he wasn’t even avoiding Thor at all. Maybe Thor was blowing this all out of proportion.</p><p>The cat slept on his bed that night, curled up on the pillow next to his head.</p><p>When Thor left his rooms the next morning, the cat demanded to come with him, winding himself around and around Thor’s legs until Thor had no choice but to pick him up and drape him over his shoulder.</p><p>“Needy little thing,” Thor murmured.</p><p>He half expected to see Loki at breakfast, cramming eggs into his face as though nothing had been amiss. Loki wasn’t at breakfast. He also didn’t show up for their shared etiquette lesson, or the court dance lesson after that. By the end of the morning’s instruction Thor was feeling more than a little heartsick, and he scooped the cat up on his way from the ballroom and buried his face in his soft fur.</p><p>“Do you think Loki’s mad at me?” Thor said miserably.</p><p>“Mrrrow,” the cat said, and batted at Thor’s cheek with his paw.</p><p>Thor joined Frigga for lunch.</p><p>“Not you, little shadow,” Thor told the cat, and gently disentangled his claws from his clothing. “Mother is allergic.” He left the cat complaining loudly in the hallway.</p><p>There was a place set for Loki, which was empty. Thor sighed heavily when he saw it.</p><p>“Did Loki tell you where he’s gone?” Thor asked Frigga as he sat. “No one has seen him for three days.”</p><p>Frigga <i>hmm</i>ed and sipped her tea. Thor didn’t know how she and Loki drank that stuff; it was like water that wanted to be something else but never quite succeeded.</p><p>“Your brother often takes time for himself,” Frigga said after a moment. “Sometimes he disappears for a week or more.”</p><p>“Yes, but he doesn’t usually do it without <i>me</i>,” Thor said morosely. He started pulling bits of cold chicken off and making a pile of them on his napkin. He didn’t want to look at Frigga, who he knew was giving him pitying eyes.</p><p>“You’re not children anymore,” Frigga said gently. “Darling—What are you doing?”</p><p>Thor shrugged. “I seem to have acquired a cat.”</p><p>The cat was still in the hallway when Thor left, flopped over napping in a patch of sun. Thor crouched down to rub his belly and wake him. The instant the cat’s eyes opened he smelled the chicken and bounded up to attack Thor’s parcel. Thor laughed and set it down on the ground for him. He watched as the cat wolfed the chicken down as though Thor hadn’t fed him earlier. What a funny little beast. Thor had made friends with many palace strays over the years, but never one that followed him around like this.</p><p>The cat cleaned his face and then leapt primly up onto his preferred spot on Thor’s shoulder afterwards. Thor set off walking aimlessly. Normally he would have trained, but at the moment it held no appeal for him. Nothing did. Everything he could think of to do, when faced with the prospect of doing it alone instead of with Loki, left him feeling dejected. (<i>You could find Sif or Fandral or Hogun</i>, his brain pointed out, but somehow right now everyone who wasn’t Loki didn’t seem to qualify as company). Even drowning his sorrows in ale seemed pointless; how pitiful would it be to begin drinking with the sun yet up?</p><p>“What shall we do, friend?” Thor said, letting the cat butt its head into his hand and scratching it behind the ears. “Why don’t you lead us somewhere?”</p><p>As if he had understood, the cat jumped down to the ground, ran a few steps ahead, then turned and meowed at Thor until he started moving. Amused, Thor followed.</p><p>They ended up in Idunn’s orchard. Thor hadn’t been here in ages. He and Loki used to climb the trees when they were younger and thought Idunn was looking the other way, sharing golden apples between giggles. For some reason no one had been very happy with Thor and Loki when they found out they shared apples. They’d stopped coming here so often after that, but Thor knew that Loki still came here on his own sometimes to study in a place where no one was looking over his shoulder.</p><p>The orchard was peaceful, cool, and green. The apples were small yet and not ripe. A passing butterfly distracted Thor’s little shadow, who went bounding after it. Thor settled himself on the ground with his back to a tree and watched the cat stalk and pounce at flowers and insects and sunbeams.</p><p>“You’ll like him,” Thor said conversationally. He must be mad, talking to a cat. “My brother, I mean. He loves little animals. He’ll ruin a man’s reputation for looking at him wrong, but <i>you</i> he would feed the choicest bites from his own plate. He’s gentle, you know. He’d kill me for saying so, but he is, underneath all those thorns. I think that’s why he has the thorns in the first place. To protect himself. I miss him.”</p><p>The cat padded over to butt against him, and Thor stroked his back until he flopped over onto his side, purring.</p><p>“I might miss him a little too much,” Thor admitted. “Maybe that’s why he’s avoiding me. Maybe he could tell… I don’t know. Do you have any brothers or sisters, little shadow?”</p><p>The cat climbed up onto Thor’s lap and yowled until Thor started stroking him again, at which point he settled into the dip between Thor’s thighs and resumed purring.</p><p>Thor never spoke of Loki like this to anyone. Just the act of speaking these thoughts was forcing them to coalesce for the very first time from the nebulous swirl that always occupied the back of Thor’s mind. It felt dangerous, but exciting as well. </p><p>“You won’t tell on me, will you?” Thor said. “I don’t know if I know what it means to be in love, but I know that I’m happiest when he’s around, even when we’re fighting, and that I’d do anything he asked me to...I mean, if it was important, of course...and that he has the prettiest eyes I’ve ever seen...they’re blueish sometimes, but green when he gets angry, the same color as yours… And that what I really want to do is kiss him, a proper kiss, like the bards are always singing about…”</p><p>Thor was gently petting the cat as he talked, first behind the ears, then on the belly when he rolled over, the fur there even softer than on his back. He could swear the little creature was staring straight into his soul. Thor’s heart felt like it might burst from the emotion welling up within him.</p><p>“I can’t tell him though. Because that would ruin everything, and he’s just...my favorite person. I don’t want—”</p><p>Too overcome to continue, Thor gave the cat one more scritch and then, full of emotion and with nowhere to put it, leaned down and kissed his little pink nose.</p><p>Thor pulled back with a startled cry, his vision obscured by a glowing cloud of green and gold. The weight in his lap shifted and grew by tenfold all at once. By the time Thor’s eyes managed to focus again, he realized he was holding onto, not a cat, but acres of smooth pale skin which seemed to consist of mostly elbows and knees—and, staring up at him in utter shock, two big blue-green eyes that belonged to no one other than Loki.</p><p>Surprise, elation, and shame flooded Thor in quick succession, followed by a sinking horror. He had just… He had just admitted all those things to <i>Loki</i>—</p><p>“You’re in love with me?” Loki blurted out.</p><p>Thor couldn’t speak. His entire throat had closed up completely. His arms wouldn’t obey him either, still holding onto (a very naked) Loki despite the fact that they should definitely not be, not after the things that Thor had just said—</p><p>Mortifyingly, Thor found himself nodding.</p><p>He was just opening his mouth to start apologizing when Loki simply surged up and...kissed him.</p><p>“Oh,” Thor said.</p><p>Well, that’s what he would have said if Loki’s lips hadn’t been on his. Since they were, very much so, it came out more like a muffled little moan, which made Loki kiss him more, which made Thor tighten his arms around him.</p><p>By the time they finally broke apart, Thor’s entire internal landscape had realigned.</p><p>“But—” Thor said. “How—you—why—<i>you were a cat?!</i>”</p><p>Loki licked his lips and pressed his hands to his reddening cheeks. He was still in Thor’s lap. “It was something new I was trying.”</p><p>“You could have told me!”</p><p>“I was stuck!”</p><p>They stared at each other for a moment.</p><p>Loki continued, slightly more calmly. “I came here to the orchard a few days ago to try this new transformation spell, and I turned into a cat, but then...when I was a cat I couldn’t figure out how to use my seidr to turn back...”</p><p>“Then how did you turn back just now?”</p><p>“I don’t know! The shock of it I suppose!”</p><p>Thor pulled Loki’s hands away from his face and held them in his own. “You understood me, then?”</p><p>Loki nodded.</p><p>Thor felt his eyes go soft. “You were with me the whole time and I didn’t even know it... You heard everything...and…” Thor’s voice stopped working again.</p><p>Loki nodded again, wide eyed. </p><p>“...and you kissed me,” Thor finished in a strangled whisper.</p><p>Loki’s mouth trembled into a smile, his eyes bright with unshed tears. This time it was Thor who leaned in and kissed him. </p><p>Thor startled at a soft silky touch on his arm and pulled back. </p><p>It was a sleek black cat’s tail.</p><p>“Oh, gods,” Loki groaned. He hid his face in Thor’s neck. “I’m going to have to figure out how to get rid of that. Never tell anyone of this.”</p><p>The entire ridiculous situation hit Thor all at once, and he started laughing. He couldn’t ever remember feeling happier in his whole life. He felt like he could fly. A wild giddiness seized him, and he tipped his brother’s face up to kiss him again, and <i>oh</i>, Loki’s lips parted for him, and it was the most perfect thing Thor had ever felt in his whole life.</p><p>When they pulled apart again, Loki was red-cheeked, and hid his face in his hands.</p><p>He was <i>purring</i>.</p><p>“I want to die,” Loki said. “Just end me, right here.”</p><p>Thor wrapped Loki’s tail around his wrist and the purring intensified, and Thor laughed as Loki groaned.</p><p>“I’ll get you some clothes,” Thor said. “Don’t go anywhere.”</p><p>“As if I could, in this state,” Loki mumbled into Thor’s chest.</p><p>“And after...” Thor said. His tone grew serious. Loki had kissed him, Loki was still in his lap, but he hadn’t actually said… Thor was embarrassed at how embarrassed he was to ask. “And after… would you like to come back to my rooms for… more of this?” His arms tightened around his brother, begging him to say yes.</p><p>Loki straightened and looked at Thor with those big sometimes-blue sometimes-green eyes that Thor loved so much.</p><p>“Proper kisses, like the bards sing about?” Loki said softly.</p><p>Thor nodded nervously. “And… and more. If you want.”</p><p>A smile spread across Loki’s face, a toothy feline grin that chased Thor’s fears away and promised good things to come. “Yes, brother, I do.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thor does a few things that you shouldn't actually do to cats! Like picking them up by the scruff and feeding them cream. He didn't even give his new cat a litterbox (don't worry, Loki <i>definitely</i> pooped in his shoe). He's well-intentioned but dumb, please don't be mad at him. </p><p>twitter.com/thunderingraven</p></blockquote></div></div>
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